現実の夢を見ること: Naruto Microstories
by fallen-chan
Summary: A collection of short stories set in the Naruto-verse. - II. Failure - He may be the Sandaime Hokage but when it comes to the most precious person the village should have, he is nothing but a failure. -
1. Ghosts

**Disclaimer**:I don't own Naruto - the characters belong to Kishimoto

**AN:** This idea...basically just came to me one day when I was in AP Stats and refused to leave me alone until I wrote it. Now there's easily 5 other ideas biting at my heels and demanding to be written.

xD

So, anyways...this is probably going to be the first in a completely unrelated series of short fics (that were originally only supposed to be drabble-length).

**Summary:** Kakashi has seen many things in his life, but he does not see Uzumaki Naruto when he looks at the whiskered, blue-eyed blond genin on his team.

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I. Ghosts

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He couldn't look at the boy. He couldn't _not_ look at the boy.

Hatake Kakashi had seen many things during his lifetime as a shinobi – _his father, dead from his own hand; Obito, dying underneath the rockslide; Namikaze Minato, facing his death with proud accepting eyes as he sealed the Kyuubi; Jiraiya, proud powerful perverted shinobi who had taught Minato who had taught __**him**_ – but he did not – could not – see Uzumaki Naruto when he looked at the blond-haired genin.

He had tried to see the boy – tried and failed so many times that, in the end, he had given up and turned his attention away from the boy-who-did-not-exist. It was easier, less painful – because when he looked at Sasuke, he did not see the painful mix of faces and personalities that dragged him back to the past.

_(Once, he had looked at the boy – a silent promise when his sensei had announced the news with bright blue eyes and an easy smile – with eyes that were not blind. That was 12 years ago, before the Kyuubi no Kitsune had attacked Konoha and taken more than just the lives of shinobi he had known. _

_He had looked at the boy again, after he had been in the Academy for one year – and he had seen Obito in his place, wearing goggles, playing pranks, and perpetually cheerful with a bright smile. He had seen the boy who had once been dead-last in the Academy, the boy who had died first and given him new eyes to see through._

_When he looked at the boy again, after hearing the tales of his new perverted jutsu and accepting the boy as part of his genin team, he did not see Uzumaki Naruto. He saw the boy who could have been in sensei's sensei, still the dead-last of the Academy. He saw the boy with the volatile temper, the boy who could never keep quiet and angered his female teammate while challenging the Rookie of the Year. He did not see Uzumaki Naruto – instead, he saw the childhood version of Jiraiya, overlaid on top of Obito._

_He looked at the boy again, after hearing how he had promised to bring back his missing teammate – and he saw his father, who had ruined himself by refusing to obey orders and instead going back for his team. He turned his attention away from the blond boy again and let Jiraiya take him – he did not want to see Hatake Sakumo, child-Jiraiya, and Obito looking back at him in the shape of a blond genin._

_More than three years later, he would look at the boy again and see the reincarnation of his sensei in the place of the boy – promising to become the next Hokage, toad-summoner and wielder of the Rasengan. He saw the same messy blond hair and bright blue eyes and he turned away again, refusing to look at the boy.)_

He could not see Uzumaki Naruto, no matter how hard he tried.

Instead, he would slip and look at the boy by mistake – and he would see Namizake Minato staring back at him, overlaid on top of his father, overlaid on top of a child-Jiraiya who was overlaid on top of Uchiha Obito. He would turn away again, eyes forever blind, and turn his attention to something else.

No matter how hard he tried to prove otherwise, Uzumaki Naruto did not exist to him. To him, the name Uzumaki Naruto meant a blond boy who was not real, a fusion of the ghosts of his past. He had looked - truly looked - four times - and each time, he had failed miserably. He did not look at the boy again.

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So...please review and tell me what you think? This is probably the shortest thing I've ever managed to write without being forced to cut it short and it's a bit of a deviation from my standard angsty!dark!fics that I specialize in now.


	2. Failure

**Disclaimer**:I don't own Naruto - the characters belong to Kishimoto

**AN:** For some odd reason, all of these seem to be depressing whenever I get around to working on them...

**Summary:** He may be the Sandaime Hokage but when it comes to the most precious person the village should have, he is nothing but a failure.

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II. Failure

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All shinobi wore masks at one point or another in their life. Some wore them constantly whereas others rarely wore them at all. It was some unspoken rule, that all shinobi create and wear a mask at one point or another in their life.

None of that consoled the Sandaime Hokage when he looked at Uzumaki Naruto, son of Namikaze Minato, and saw the eyes of one who had lived a lifetime of abuse and neglect behind the mask of a smiling prankster.

He had failed the boy and, in doing so, he had failed his student's student and the last wish of the Yondaime Hokage – _"tell the villagers that he's a hero, oji-san" _– and now he saw the product of his failure before his eyes.

_("Do you remember me, Naruto-kun?" _

_Dull blue eyes – Minato's eyes – and Sarutobi couldn't meet the empty stare any longer and he turned away, just like everyone else had. _

_**Failure**__. He had failed to protect Minato's child and now the boy was broken, perhaps beyond hope of repair.)_

He had been a fool to think that the villagers would understand the sacrifice that Minato had made for the village's sake – the sacrifice that his _son_, Uzumaki Naruto, was now paying for.

They had not. They had not seen Naruto for what he was, a child innocent of all evils and bearer of the burden of being the _jinchuuriki_ for the Kyuubi no Kitsune. They saw a demon, the same demon that had destroyed their property and killed their kin. They saw a demon, and they resented Naruto for it and allowed hatred to fester in their hearts.

He had expected better of the shinobi of his village – _nothing but tools for espionage and death_ – and he had placed his trust in them. They had failed to rise to meet his expectations. Their eyes had been clouded by hatred and the burning desire for revenge – _fathers, mothers, siblings, blood-kin, friends, all lying dead on a battlefield that had been soaked by tears and blood as the village mourned the death of its leader and so many others_ – and they had seen the feral, grinning face of the Kyuubi no Kitsune in place of a sleeping boy.

'_I'm sorry, Naruto-kun, Minato-kun. For what it is worth now…I am sorry.'_

He resolved that he would not make the same mistake again and fail Naruto like he had his former student - _Orochimaru, traitor to the village and S-class missing nin_.

Deep down in his heart, Sarutobi knew that it was a promise he would not be able to keep – _he was just one man, a mortal, and he was not infallible_ – and he silently mourned for the innocent of one Uzumaki Naruto.

He had failed to keep his promise to Minato and he would fail to keep his promise to protect Naruto once again.

_Konohagakure's will of fire…it has disappeared. What light is there at the end of the tunnel now that all light had gone out? A red dawn is rising, the start of a new age…and we are all ancient relics, us Kages and the Sannin – relics that will disappear into the stream of time._

_We, who promised our lives to the protection of the village, of our precious people...we have failed._


End file.
